re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

Interesting to see them return to their licensing strategy again, they brought this into play during the Wii era offering first party support and licenses to third parties to help increase the variations and frequency of title releases. I thought they had abandoned it after the series of titles they announced all hit retail as nothing new came up on the map.

Given past successes I'd say it's a safe bet to expect the dynamics to stay in there otherwise Nintendo would still have the ability to pull rank on the project.

Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

Since Nintendo is busy with so many other projects for the 3DS and the Wii U's launch, Namco Bandai will be developing the upcoming Super Smash Bros. sequel for Wii U and 3DS. Yes, Namco; no, not Nintendo.

In yet another Nintendo tease-and-leave, the new Super Smash Bros. was mentioned during tonight's Nintendo Direct broadcast, but no new screenshots or gameplay were shown.

Super Smash Bros. 4 will still be directed by series creator Masahiro Sakurai and his team Project Sora, but it will be developed in conjunction with Namco Bandai superstars Yoshito Higuchi, of the Tales franchise, and Kenya Kobayashi of Ridge Racer fame.

Look forward to more news later this year, but don't expect a release date any time soon.

Update: Namco Bandai developer Masaya Kobayashi expressed his sentiments over the co-project and dropped several more names:

"In order to make Mr. Sakurai proud, we will take on this project with NAMCO BANDAI's best staff! Yoshito Higuchi, the producer and the director of the Tales series, Tetsuya Akatsuka, producer and director of Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs., the art director/sound director of the SoulCalibur series, the main development team staff from the TEKKEN series…and that's just for starters."

re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

The way the Namco producer is name dropping all of his franchises, bringing in dudes from every time, I would be extremely surprised if we didn't see some of their characters. Jin or Heihashi, or maybe someone from Katamari or Soul Calibur. Not a log of characters, but a couple so they can leave their mark.

re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

With Masahiro Sakurai and his team watching over things and Namco's finest on the job it sounds promising, and with snake of all characters making it into brawl I guess anythings possible where guest stars are concerned. At the very least we're bound to see Namco's characters as trophies and assist trophies if they make a return.

re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

Perhaps I finally have a reason to get a 3ds, there are already a bunch of games for it that I'd like and a super smash brothers would seal the deal. Melee was my favourite fighting game back when I played alot on my gamecube. I'll have to keep an eye on this one.

re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

This is bad, namco bandai is involve with the super smash bro, there a chance that this game will be Japan only, since Namco bandai has a record of not releasing games world wide like the tales of games.

re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

super michael - There's no way Nintendo will allow one of their biggest franchises to be a Japanese only release. Besides, why would they have announced it through Nintendo of America if they weren't planning on releasing it here? Think before you post.

re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

quote super michael

This is bad, namco bandai is involve with the super smash bro, there a chance that this game will be Japan only, since Namco bandai has a record of not releasing games world wide like the tales of games.

That'll be stupid since the western market for smash bros is like... PRETTY HUGE?

re: Next Super Smash Bros. being developed by Namco Bandai, Sakurai still directing

quote super michael

This is bad, namco bandai is involve with the super smash bro, there a chance that this game will be Japan only, since Namco bandai has a record of not releasing games world wide like the tales of games.

You shouldn't be worried. Sakurai would make sure the game was released overseas. After the success of Uprising, my hopes are up.

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